New hoops film takes shot

In “Coach Carter,” Samuel L. Jackson plays a no-nonsense coach who transforms a high school basketball team from a bunch of boastful losers into championship contenders. But because his players don’t keep their promise to maintain their grades, he padlocks the gym and benches the entire team.

Inspired by a true story, “Coach Carter,” which opens Friday, is just the latest entry in the time-honored basketball movie tradition.

The 1986 “Hoosiers” arguably ranks as the Michael Jordan of basketball movies. It was one of those great, true underdog stories with Gene Hackman playing a high school coach with a less-than-perfect past who teams with the town drunk (Dennis Hopper in his Oscar-nominated performance) to lead a small-town Indiana high school team to victory in 1954.

Far from a slam dunk, though, was 1994’s stolid “Blue Chips,” directed by William Friedkin. Set in the world of college basketball, the film revolved around a stalwart coach (Nick Nolte) who finds himself having to break recruitment rules to stay competitive.

There have been plenty of comedic basketball movies like 1979’s “Fast Break,” with Gabe Kaplan as a rabid New York basketball fan who becomes coach of a small Nevada college team, and “The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh,” also from 1979, about a hapless Pittsburgh basketball team that becomes a winner with the help of an astrologer and new players. The film features basketball legends Julius Erving, Meadowlark Lemon and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Fantasy also has figured in the basketball arena, most notably with Disney’s 1961 classic “The Absent-Minded Professor.” Fred MacMurray plays the title character, who concocts an anti-gravity substance named Flubber. When the college’s basketball team flounders during a game, the anti-gravity goo is ironed onto the soles of the team’s shoes and the players literally win the game by leaps and bounds.